


From Chewing Gum to GO

by LovettOrNot



Category: EXO (Band), K-pop, NCT (Band)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, M/M, Parenthood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-06
Updated: 2018-03-06
Packaged: 2019-03-27 21:01:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13889046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LovettOrNot/pseuds/LovettOrNot
Summary: Sehun and Luhan were perfectly fine raising their sons Jeno and Jaemin all throughout their youth. They always expected a rebellious phase but not quite the drastic change their sons went through after their 17th birthday.Or: Late 30s Sehun and Luhan deal with Chewing Gum turning into GO. Told from Luhan’s perspective.





	From Chewing Gum to GO

It was near midnight and I was just about ready to throw something.

 

This was the third time. The third time that the boys stayed out past their curfew. I thought we straightened everything out the last few times, figured we had a deal worth keeping. It was a full two hours added to their time! And yet here I was, sitting on the sofa, watching the door and waiting for them. Damn seat was uncomfortable and no matter how I sat on it, it just made me angrier.

 

Sehun sat next to me, also on edge, when he should’ve been sleeping already. Earlier he’d been saying that they were just caught up in something and that they’d come any time soon, but that was an hour and a half ago. Even he couldn’t defend that. Sehun was always a bit lenient with them. Was he the cause for all of this? No. If it was Sehun’s fault it was my fault too. Unless…

 

“Did we go wrong somewhere?”

 

It was so much easier when the boys were little. They were adorable with their school uniforms, slicked back hair and general feeling of innocence no matter what they did. They were refreshing to look at and be around. They had a strange penchant for chewing gum and a tiny mischievous streak, but everyone they knew had that, so- ah, damn. Maybe I should’ve squashed that streak right when it started. Then I wouldn’t have to deal with this headache.

 

“I’m sure that’s not it. We might not be the best parents, but we did a better job than everyone else was expecting.”

 

That was true, at least. Several members insisted that we’d give them too much freedom, wouldn’t reward them enough, would give them too much candy, all manner of concerns, but we hadn’t had a problem with any of that. We knew they were alphas since they were 16 but that didn’t make a difference either. They were the same lovable children we’d grown accustomed to. We let them go out of the house and now all hell breaks loose.

 

Some of my friends had doubts for our parenting from the beginning, particularly Jongin and Chanyeol, but everybody else was supportive. With a little advice from Minseok and Yixing parenting was a dream, letting our boys make their own worthwhile friends without being overly involved ourselves.

 

We got to know each of their friends from a very young age and a large number of them stuck together even through the shifts from schools. Mark stood out as being particularly reliable due to his hardworking personality so we encouraged Jeno and Jaemin to talk to him.

 

 _That’s_ where we went wrong. It was only after Mark became too close a friend to get rid of that we found out that he’d been hanging out with people much older than him. The groups must have intermingled at one point and set off the transformation in my sons.

 

I sighed and held my head in my hands. “You should go to sleep now. I’ll deal with the kids myself.”

 

“You have work in the morning! You know I’ll be in here all day with them, you get some rest.”

 

Sehun’s hands on my back and shoulders felt heavenly, working through my anger until there was nothing but bitter disappointment. Not that good of a change, but hey. At least I wasn’t going to tear the living room apart anymore. Sehun was right, though. If I stayed up all night just waiting for the kids to come around I’d have no energy to deal with work. I was just about ready to get off of the chair when I heard voices coming from just past the door.

 

“Are the lights on?” That was Jaemin. I got out of my seat and walked as silently as I could to the door, crossing my arms as I did so. Even without looking I could tell Sehun put his serious face on as well. There wouldn’t be any running to the other parent this time around.

 

“Shhhh! You might wake them up, idiot!” Despite Jeno’s warning he was just as loud. He definitely got _that_ from his other father. “I think the lights are on. Let’s climb up to our rooms instead.”

 

I took a deep breath and stomped on the floor hard enough to make a loud _thump_. Any harder and I would’ve cracked the tile. “Don’t even think about it.”

 

There was the sound of shuffling coming from the front porch, almost like they were considering running. Thankfully they didn’t make me chase them and opened up the door like they should, revealing the two of them looking down on their shoes. They looked sad, but I knew full well that they had no intention of giving a genuine apology. They were just trying to get off of the hook with their pouty little looks and hunched shoulders.

 

Jaemin took after me and admittedly acted pretty convincingly when compared to his sibling. Although that was enough to convince Sehun most of the time I was largely immune to seeing what was basically my own face pout at me. Jaemin’s silvery jacket crackled even though he was staying as still as possible, an added annoyance to the fact that it glinted every time he did move. Where did Jaemin get his hands on that? Sehun’s wardrobe? I threw a dirty glance at my husband and only received a shrug in return, so I turned my look toward my other son.

 

Jeno had a similar silver jacket on which made me think he and his friends bought it with their allowance. Was there some kind of silver clothing-themed party or something? A semi-permanent thing he and his friends were doing now? That didn’t matter too much. They didn’t have marks on them, they didn’t seem inebriated and there wasn’t any scent of an omega on them, all small mercies, but it was time to deal with the issue at hand.

 

“Your father and I have been worried sick about the two of you.”  I did my best to keep my tone even and calm. If I snapped at them they’d just drift farther from caring about what I said. “What time do you think it is, hm?”

 

“It’s around midnight- but Papa, we can explain.” Jeno took the reins and stepped in front of his brother. Jeno was the better liar so I only scrutinized his claims closer. “We were at Jisung’s birthday party. We can only get together in the evenings and two hours isn’t enough for a party. We lost track of the time but we’re really sorry and… can you let it slide this time?”

 

I didn’t know the birthdays of any of his friends and I did understand why he’d want to hang around with his friends a bit later if that were true. His argument and crooked smile were starting to sway Sehun, cracks appearing in the death glare my husband was giving up until that point. I couldn’t prove whether there was a birthday or not, but I didn’t need to do that.

 

“Uh-huh. And why is this the first I’m hearing of this?” Jaemin was visibly panicking at that point, but Jeno stood strong. Brave kid. “You could’ve told us months ago. Days ago. Even if you learnt about it today you could have texted me. I’d have given you permission.”

 

Jeno went stock-still and pale in the face. If I had to take a guess he was probably thinking about whether he could come up for a subsequent excuse related to his cellphone, but he was only trapping himself further into a corner. Eventually he sighed and nodded.

 

Sehun always doled out the punishments in the household since mine were always a bit too brutal for anyone, let alone our own children. The twinkle in my husband’s eye only made it clear that he had something special in mind for this occasion. Sehun usually dragged out the dramatics too long so before he could pace around the kids I grabbed his arm and shook it to tell him to get on with it.

 

“I would have set your curfew four hours back to prove a point, but I don’t think you’d obey that anyway. No electronics for two weeks.” Jeno gasped and Jaemin looked absolutely mortified.  “No cellphones, no laptops, no tablets- we’ll be taking all of them.”

 

It took a few minutes for Jaemin to fully register the consequences of his actions. When it did, it hit him as hard as puberty did, with the force of a truck. He looked to be one or two seconds away from crying. Jesus. Every bone in my body was telling me to comfort my son, but this was a legitimate punishment. Temporarily shaken, I and Sehun shared an uneasy glance. When Jaemin spoke it _sounded_ like he was about to cry too.

 

“That’s too m-much. H-How are we supposed to do our h-homework?”

 

Sehun went over to Jaemin’s side and hugged him. “Shhh, honey. Don’t cry. You can use them under our supervision.”

 

The sound of my palm hitting my face was only drowned out by Jaemin’s wails. Even Jeno came around to comfort his brother, so eventually all three of us had to escort Jaemin to his room before he woke up the neighbors with his crying. When Jaemin was asleep and Jeno was in his room, I and my partner headed back to the living room.

 

For a time we didn’t speak about anything. The long period of silence gave me ample opportunity to think about how Jaemin had reverted to what was essentially a younger version of himself. Was that a good thing, a bad thing? Parenting was hard. Tomorrow morning I’d have to call Minseok to get some expert advice on the situation. That was the only thing we could’ve done or else they’d just repeat this over and over until they lost all respect… right?

 

Sehun broke the silence with a groan. “Were we a bit hard on them? They’re just teenagers. This is just a phase.”

 

“A phase that could ruin their life if we just let them do whatever they want.” I shrugged. I always hated when my parents took away anything, but they were quick to jump the gun near constantly. This was the third curfew break in a row. “Why?”

 

“We were just like them when _we_ were teenagers. _Yes, a wolf, I’m a wolf. Awoo!_ ”

 

I couldn’t help but scoff. “Don’t even joke about that. That was a nightmare and nobody stopped us. Half of us looked horrible. Didn’t we switch to highschool looks halfway through anyway?”

 

Now that I thought about it, I was a cringy teenager as well. Our group started calling itself EXO around that time. We took the whole alpha-beta-omega rules way too seriously and decided to ‘become’ a wolf pack. There wasn’t a hierarchy, things basically stayed the same and we just wore stupid outfits.

 

Jongin thought it was a great idea to get braids, Baekhyun looked like a poodle, I got a really bad perm and to top it all off there was this strange running joke with Chanyeol and _‘chogiwa’_ that I still couldn’t wrap my head around. We got rid of the looks quickly but the damage had been done. A lifetime of memories to look back on and regret.

 

Despite the ridiculousness of that whole era there were some fond memories that we held onto, my husband and I especially. All of them centered around the moon, the private yet open setting that a moonlit field gave us, skinny dipping in a freezing lake, the serene stillness of the night when we first locked lips with no one but the moon as our witness. And… all of those happy memories were after my curfew.

 

My parents were overly strict in pretty much every way that I didn’t look back when I ran away with Sehun. Their curfew was just one of the many unfair limitations that they gave me, but that only drove me to become a better parent. My sons were young and stupid, but there were things about life they had to learn by themselves even if it hurt them. After all, I was once young, stupid and… freaky, for lack of a better word, too.

 

“I think we should give them back their things after three days.”

 

Sehun chuckled and smooched my cheek. “Agreed.”


End file.
